E.R.

My little bug has been sick lately. His tonsils are huge, and his glands in his throat are really swollen. His doctor told us that it was NOTHING to worry about. He never did any sort of culture to determine what might be causing it OR just to rule anything out. I listened to him and gave Alex the medicine prescribed. The End.....

...Or so I thought. This morning Alex woke me up unusually early. He wasn't feeling well, kind of feverish, and was very grumpy. Nothing I did was ok. He wanted to cuddle, but any body contact between the two of us...unacceptable. He wanted to watch cartoons, but none of the cartoons were what he wanted to watch. He wanted apple juice, but we only had grape cranberry...unacceptable.

Anyhow, the day goes on, and I called the doctor to see if I should take him in because I thought his swelling was getting worse. They say no. So I went about my day, and went to a work related meeting that had been scheduled for awhile. When I came home, my mom (she watched the kids for me during my meeting) said that Alex was struggling to breath. So I ended up taking him to the E.R. :( After quite awhile of waiting(at this time his breathing had improved a bit), the doctor came over and looked at Alex's tonsils. After one look, he said that Alex definitely has strep throat. Poor kid. They damn near shoved a cotton swab down his throat to collect the bacteria for a culture just to be certain. And they came back with two HUGE needles to give him a huge dose of antibiotics. It broke my heart to see him cry like that :(

Then the nurse came back with a Popsicle for him since we had to wait a half an hour before leaving. He was much happier then :)

The staff was so friendly and helpful. And they did not make me feel at all like an overprotective mom for taking him in for a "sore throat"...which, I have to be honest, I was expecting to be treated like I wasting their time. They were great with the kids (the nurse even brought them some chocolate covered marshmallows...shh, don't tell!), and answered my questions and definitely made me feel like I had their full attention. I was also surprised by that as they were very busy (lots of patients) and only had one on call doctor.

Now, the kids are in bed sleeping...thankfully. That's where I am headed, too. :)